Steelworkers union hall heavy on history

The phones rang off the hook 20 years ago when frantic steelworkers found out their leadership might sell the union's headquarters, Van Bittner Hall, to help make ends meet.

Fast forward to two weeks ago when a newspaper story again reported that the hallowed hall of union organizing, at one time the nerve center for about 35,000 steelworkers, might be sold for

$1.3 million to the city of Bethlehem.

The phones again rang.

But this time the calls came from alarmed bowling league members, said Ron Kaintz, manager of the lanes tucked away in the bowels of the labyrinthian 27,000-square-foot building and one of the handful of people that still works at Van Bittner.

"It kind of shook everybody up," Kaintz said on a recent evening as the first of the night bowlers filed into the eight-lane subterranean playland. "Now, I have all my bowlers wondering if they have a place to go."

The bowlers can stay on their home alleys, at least for the time being.

Bethlehem Mayor James Delgrosso said he has put on hold plans to proceed with the purchase of the building. He'll leave the matter to the winner of the Nov. 4 mayoral election.

Jerry Green, president of Local 2599 of the United Steelworkers of America, said dwindling union membership forced him to consider selling Van Bittner. From a high of about 35,000 members in 1964, the membership has slipped to about 1,800. Bethlehem Steel Corp., the company they worked for, no longer exists.

Walking through the darkened halls of Van Bittner, Green clicked wall switches, pointing out the rich history of the building that opened in 1954.

The union hall once was a must-stop for prominent state and national Democratic candidates seeking support of the then- influential steelworkers.

The list includes presidential contenders Hubert H. Humphrey, Ted Kennedy and former California Gov. Jerry Brown. Jimmy Carter's wife, Rosalynn, and former U.S. Sens. Joe Clark, Harris Wofford and John Heinz, and Gov. Robert Casey Sr. all visited.

Green walked the hallways past the mostly drab walls and linoleum corridors with uninteresting offices spaced along them. Most of the rooms have names. The Wadolny Room, a large meeting hall, is named for former union President John Wadolny, one of the union's first organizers.

There's the Wall of Presidents, home to plaques displaying the names of every president who headed the three Bethlehem chapters -- Locals 2598, 2599 and 2600. As the ranks diminished, the unions merged and only 2599 remains.

The building is full of history. During the bitter strike against Bethlehem Steel in 1959, Van Bittner was literally the lifeline of struggling workers.

"We did most of the cooking there, handed out food," said Ed O'Brien, a former president of Local 2598 and a congressional candidate in 2000 and 2002.

There is an Ed O'Brien room that looks like a closet from the outside. It's right next to a sign that reads "Rest Rooms." O'Brien jokes that the two signs should be switched.

Van Bittner was also a community center -- a Red Cross shelter and site of many blood drives before the Miller-Keystone Blood Center existed. The World Wide Church of God used the union hall as its home for 15 years.

Van Bittner also was the place for family parties, including many weddings over the years.

"We've done it all out of that building," O'Brien said.

But the once-raucous union headquarters is an empty place where the halls echo silence most of the time. The union that in its heyday filled every office with leaders on USWA business is represented now by a half-dozen union officials who have relegated themselves to four small offices downstairs near the bowling alleys.

Even the famed Bethlehem Steel I-beam that the union once proudly displayed on its property has been removed in shame.

"That was supposed to be a reminder of what Bethlehem Steel and its employees stood for," said O'Brien, who had the icon removed.

"I didn't want a reminder every morning pulling into the parking lot of what Bethlehem Steel did to us," said O'Brien, who believes the company did not treat workers fairly in the way it closed the plant. "I wanted to run it through the lobby of [Bethlehem Steel headquarters] Martin Tower."

The mayor thinks it's in the space-starved city's best interest to buy Van Bittner and the 1.7 acres on which it sits.

"If I were the mayor in the future, I would definitely recommend purchasing it because of the potential long-term use of that building and area," Delgrosso said. "But that decision will be left up to the next administration and City Council."

Delgrosso believes Van Bittner would be suitable for the city's Police Department and fire headquarters. And the city has been looking for a permanent home for its tourist center, now jammed into the Main Street office of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce.

But before any offer is seriously considered, Green said, the union must find a new home.

"We'd like to leave some lasting memorial," Green said. "It would be my desire to build a new union hall. It would be smaller, but it would be some place the steelworkers can call their home."